What Alexandr spoke about.

13 Mar

2024

EN Speech

Type-approval of motor vehicles and engines with respect to their emissions and battery durability (Euro 7) (debate)

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, today’s vote is an important milestone for the automotive sector, an industry that has always stood as a pillar of innovation and economic prosperity in Europe. Almost 17 months ago, the Commission published its original proposal. In short, it sets the common standard for approving motor vehicles, engines and related systems, components and technical units, but …

28 Feb

2024

EN Speech

Strengthening European Defence in a volatile geopolitical landscape - Implementation of the common foreign and security policy – annual report 2023 - Implementation of the common security and defence policy – annual report 2023 (joint debate - European security and defence)

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Madam President, the most pressing challenge of our time is to contain the Russian aggression and to provide, immediately, more military help to Ukraine. We do not need more empty promises, but concrete deeds. We must deliver more guns. At home, we do not need new uniforms, we do not need to build a European army to compete with NATO and we do not need a never-ending debate about extending the QMV…

27 Feb

2024

EN Speech

Multiannual financial framework for the years 2021 to 2027 - Establishing the Ukraine Facility - Establishing the Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (‘STEP’) (joint debate - multiannual financial framework revision)

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, this European Ukraine Facility is a very important instrument and we should support it, because it helps Ukraine economically to survive. We should take also in our minds one fact: that it’s not enough. We need to support more in the other area which is vitally important, not just for the security and defence of Ukraine, but for the security and defence of all o…

6 Feb

2024

CS Speech

EU2040 climate target (debate)

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, at a time of peasant upheavals over Europe, the Commission is coming up with another plan, the main criterion of which is unrealistically high ambition. But the main problem with this climate plan for 2040 is completely different. It is an effort to impose a different lifestyle on people, to limit their freedom of choice. Have you, ladies and gentlemen, brought …

17 Jan

2024

CS Speech

Geothermal energy (debate)

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Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, you know that I often criticise here, but now I will praise. The news is very good. It rightly calls on the European Union to make far greater use of the potential of geothermal energy, which has one huge advantage. It is a stable renewable resource that does not depend on the weather. The earth releases heat and energy all the time. And not just that. Even t…

17 Jan

2024

CS Speech

Extending the list of EU crimes to hate speech and hate crime (debate)

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Madam President, for us in the former Eastern Bloc, freedom of speech is a key value. We are sensitive to its limitations and in favor of seemingly generous goals. Moreover, one cannot help but notice that the aim is often to protect left-wing dogmas rather than specific individuals. For example, the tabooing of the debate on migration policy due to the fear of accusations of spreading hatred has …

16 Jan

2024

CS Speech

Keeping commitments and delivering military assistance to Ukraine (debate)

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, today it is exactly fifty-five years since a young student set himself on fire in the centre of Prague. Jan Palach committed his own life to try to awaken Czech society from lethargy, fatigue and pessimism in the face of violent Russian aggression and occupation. Fatigue and lethargy are also beginning to spread in Europe. We mustn't succumb to it. Yesterday, th…

12 Dec

2023

CS Speech

Framework for ensuring a secure and sustainable supply of critical raw materials (debate)

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Mr President, the proposed law on critical raw materials is undoubtedly a proposal that deserves our support. If we want the transformation under the Green Deal to have at least a little chance of success, I will raise my hand for it. I'll take a few notes, though. First of all, just as a house is not built from the roof, the submission of legislative proposals should be logical. This law should h…

21 Nov

2023

EN Speech

Strategic Compass and EU space-based defence capabilities (debate)

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Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, the report we are debating today is built on two key ideas. First, that space is a strategic arena which is vital for our security and well-being. Secondly, that the increased competition from the authoritarian states, like Russia or China, necessitates that the EU and its Member States share resources and capabilities to address security in outer space. It a…

21 Nov

2023

EN Speech

Sustainable use of plant protection products (debate)

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Madam President, thank you very much, I was stuck in the traffic. Paní předsedající, já to řeknu natvrdo. Zpráva, kterou připravovala kolegyně Sarah Wienerová, je špatná. Penalizuje členské státy, které už roky poctivě snižují objem používaných pesticidů, znemožňuje jim definovat si citlivé oblasti, kde se pesticidy budou využívat jen omezeně, po svém, dle místních podmínek, protože je chce defino…

20 Nov

2023

CS Speech

Framework of measures for strengthening Europe’s net-zero technology products manufacturing ecosystem (Net Zero Industry Act) (debate)

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Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, the European Commission is too late to remember that without industry and innovation there will be no decarbonisation. Yes, we commend that. This proposal contains some useful things: perhaps less bureaucracy, accelerated permitting of selected investments, fiction of consent. But most importantly, we're still staggering halfway: Full support for nuclear ener…

9 Nov

2023

EN Speech

Type-approval of motor vehicles and engines with respect to their emissions and battery durability (Euro 7) (A9-0298/2023 - Alexandr Vondra) (vote)

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Thank you very much to colleagues for endorsing my report for backing a measured approach to emission limits and testing procedures under Euro 7 and, therefore, in accordance with Rule 59, I kindly request that the report be referred back to the ENVI Committee for interinstitutional meetings.…

8 Nov

2023

EN Speech

Type-approval of motor vehicles and engines with respect to their emissions and battery durability (Euro 7) (debate)

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Madam President, thank you very much. I think we had a useful debate, and I want to thank everybody for joining us in this debate. I want to thank, of course, all those associated committees – ITRE, TRAN and IMCO – for their work, which certainly helped to craft my report and to reach a rational balanced proposal. I want to thank also the shadows, in particular Jens Gieseke and Susana Solís, for t…

8 Nov

2023

EN Speech

Type-approval of motor vehicles and engines with respect to their emissions and battery durability (Euro 7) (debate)

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, almost a year has passed since the Commission published its Euro 7 proposal. Unlike previous regulations, Euro 7 encompasses a broad range of vehicles, all within a single legal framework. For the first time, this legislation also contains rules affecting electric vehicles. No matter which politician you ask, they will all claim to be committed to a sustainable …

18 Oct

2023

CS Speech

Fighting disinformation and dissemination of illegal content in the context of the Digital Services Act and in times of conflict (debate)

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Mr President, for us in the former Eastern Bloc, freedom of speech is key and we are very sensitive to restricting it even in favour of seemingly generous goals. Real disinformation and foreign-paying information must be distinguished from inconvenient opinions. Disinformation has its fixed definition that it is a demonstrable lie spread knowingly for some purpose to an audience. It needs to be ke…

18 Oct

2023

CS Speech

The despicable terrorist attacks by Hamas against Israel, Israel’s right to defend itself in line with humanitarian and international law and the humanitarian situation in Gaza (debate)

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, all the complexity, the ambiguity, perhaps even the insolvability of everything that is happening in the Middle East, must not obscure our minds from what is essential here. What we saw last week is actually black and white. The attack of the barbarians on our civilization, the attack of those who choose death, those who love life, the attack of those who kill w…

17 Oct

2023

CS Speech

Water scarcity and structural investments in access to water in the EU (debate)

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I am glad for today's debate on water. Unfortunately, it is symptomatic that it is literally drowned among other points, although we all know that without water there is no life. And that's what we all say here. The same goes for the whole Green Deal. We always remember it after we've exhausted other topics, or when we're dealing with droughts or floods. That's …

17 Oct

2023

EN Speech

Effectiveness of the EU sanctions on Russia (debate)

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen. We have agreed and we have implemented 11 sets of sanctions against Russia, and by far it is a big success. I do not remember anything similar in the last decades. However, it still has the loopholes, and we need to fix the loopholes. One of the largest loopholes is Iran, which is providing the equipment to Putin, including the drones and other high technology. …

5 Oct

2023

EN Speech

Urban wastewater treatment (debate)

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Mr President, I don’t see the urban wastewater treatment only as a mandatory part of the circular economy concept, but above all, an important civilisation achievement that we should be rightly proud of. And that’s why I am glad that Nils Torvalds has done a lot of work on the proposal we have on the table today. Unfortunately, as always, the devil is hidden in the detail. The revised directive wi…

13 Sep

2023

CS Speech

Reviewing the protection status of wolves and other large carnivores in the EU (topical debate)

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Madam President, the wolf is back and I think this is a debate that must not be conducted ideologically, but in principle very practically and pragmatically. On the one hand, nature conservation has achieved great success, the wolf is back, I myself have a country house in the north of Bohemia, it was the first place where the wolf returned to us after 200 years. I've seen the pack, there's a howl…

12 Sep

2023

CS Speech

Ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe (debate)

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Mr President, let us be clear. The directive, as prepared by the rapporteur, will not lead to an improvement in air quality, but only to pressure for a blanket restriction on free economic activity and an increase in the number of actions against Member States. These are already struggling to meet today's limits, which are based on the 2005 WTO recommendations, especially in cities, not to mention…

12 Jul

2023

EN Speech

Delivering on the Green Deal: risk of compromising the EU path to the green transition and its international commitments (debate)

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, today’s vote on nature restoration provides us with a very useful lesson. Those of us who love nature, who want to protect the birds and the bees were very glad that it passed through, but with a very narrow margin. I think it’s obvious that the Green Deal faces its limits. The elections are close and the people are tired. The text which went through the Council…

11 Jul

2023

CS Speech

Nature restoration (debate)

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Mr President, for colleagues on the left, Viktor Orbán supported this in the Council. The proposal we have on the table is not good and is intrinsically contradictory. Yes, it is good that it can help disappearing birds, pollinators, help retain water in the landscape. On the other hand, it complicates the livelihood of the peasants, we know that. It brutally encroaches on the competences of the M…

10 Jul

2023

CS Speech

Industrial Emissions Directive - Industrial Emissions Portal - Deployment of alternative fuels infrastructure - Sustainable maritime fuels (FuelEU Maritime Initiative) - Energy efficiency (recast) (joint debate - Fit for 55 and Industrial Emissions)

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Madam President, I was the shadow rapporteur for the opinion on AFIR, or alternative infrastructure, alternative charging, and I will say the following: those of us – and I count on them too – who think that it is not wise to ban internal combustion engines, but to leave it to some market, naturally and logically tend to think that it would be far better to let the market environment and what dema…

13 Jun

2023

CS Speech

Humanitarian and environmental consequences of the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam - Sustainable reconstruction and integration of Ukraine into the Euro-Atlantic community (debate)

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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, this has been said many times, but it needs to be repeated over and over again. Ukraine is fighting for us. And because she fights for us in her brave fight, it is our duty to help her in this struggle, to help her militarily, economically, politically and morally. Important meetings of both the European Council and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization are app…